Sunday, July 22, 2018

Bacon's essays are a blend of philosophical moralizing and worldly wisdom


Bacon was definitely a worldly wise man. He appears both as a wise and a shrewd person in the suggestions that he has advocated for worldly success in his essays. He was truly of the Renaissance: the age of accumulating knowledge, wealth and power. Being a true follower of Machiavellian principles, he led his life for worldly success. He was a man of shrewd and sagacious intellect with his eyes fixed on the way that would bring practical success. Consequently we find that what he has preached in his essays is only the knowledge needed for worldly success. 
There is no doubt that Bacon’s essays are a treasure house of worldly/practical wisdom. The term worldly/practical wisdom means a wisdom which is necessary for worldly/practical success. It does not need any deep philosophy or any ideal morality. But Bacon was a man of high wisdom, as he himself pronounced, “I have taken all knowledge to be my province”. Bacon also preached morality but his morality is subordinate to worldly success and he never hesitated to sacrifice it for worldly benefit. His essays are rich with the art which a man should employ for achieving success in his life: such as shrewdness, sagacity, tact, foresight, judgment of character and so on.
The subject of Bacon in his essays is the man who needs prosperity in worldly terms. Bacon’s essays bring men to ‘come home to men’s business and bosoms’. He teaches them how to exercise one’s authority and much more. When he condemns cunning, he condemns it not because it is a hateful and vile thing, but because it is unwise. That is why the wisdom in his essay is considered a ‘cynical’ kind of wisdom. He describes his essays as ‘Counsels – civil and moral’. In his essay “Of Truth”, Bacon appreciates truth and wishes people to speak the truth. He says:
“A lie faces God and shrinks from man.”
He warns human beings against the punishment for the liar on the doomsday. But at the same time, he considers a lie as an ‘alloy’ which increases the strength of gold and feels it necessary for survival on earth.
Bacon is both a philosopher and a moralist as is clear from his essays. A philosopher is, broadly speaking; a person who is deeply interested in the pursuit of truth, while a moralist is a person who teaches human beings the distinction between what is right and what is wrong and urges them to tread the right path only. Bacon appears in this dual role in many of the essays that he has written. In the essay, Of Truth, Bacon says that truth is the supreme good for human beings. He describes the inquiry of truth as seeking it, the knowledge of truth as its presence and the belief of truth as the enjoying of it.
Making an obvious reference to the Bible, Bacon says that the first thing created by God was light and the final thing created by Him was the rational faculty that he bestowed upon man. First God breathed light upon matter or chaos; then He breathed light into the face of man; and afterwards he has always been breathing light into the faces of those whom He chooses for his special favor. All these, we might say, are the observations of a philosopher-cum-moralist.
Bacon’s object in writing this essay is manifestly to instill into the minds of his readers a love of truth.
Though Bacon ran after worldly success but his essays also provides great philosophical ideas to the readers.

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